Secret crawlspace cryptomine discovered in routine inspection of MA high school

Enlarge / Cohasset Police Department found electrical wires, temporary duct work, and numerous computers confirmed to be a cryptomine operating illegally. (credit: Cohasset Police)

After a former town employee of Cohasset, Massachusetts, was accused of stealing thousands of dollars in electricity from a local middle/high school to operate a secret cryptocurrency mine in a seemingly overlooked crawlspace, police grew concerned when the suspect missed a court date and couldn’t be located.

A warrant was then issued for the accused, 39-year-old Nadeam Nahas, who resigned his position at the Town of Cohasset last year, police said. That warrant got quickly pulled, though, after Nahas appeared in court today, Cohasset Police Department (CPD) communications specialist Justin Shrair told Ars.

The department can’t share any other new information at this time, Shrair told Ars. But he confirmed that the possible cryptocurrency mining operation was discovered in December 2021, when the director of Cohasset Middle/High School conducted a routine inspection and “noticed electrical wires, temporary duct work, and numerous computers,” which “seemed out of place.”